Defying Past Criticism, Trump Plans G-20 Summit at His Doral Resort

Natalie Allison and Michael Birnbaum / The Washington Post

12:21 JST, September 6, 2025

President Donald Trump plans to host next year’s Group of 20 summit at his Doral golf resort in Florida, fulfilling his wish to host a major gathering of world leaders at one of his properties after bowing to criticism of self-dealing over a similar proposal during his first term.

“I think that everybody wants it there because it’s right next to the airport. It’s the best location. It’s beautiful,” Trump said Friday, of the decision to host the summit at the resort just west of Miami.

Trump’s decision reflects the unconstrained approach he has taken during his second term – rejecting the guardrails that once constrained him when it came to mixing personal business with his public office.

He backed down in 2019 when Democrats, Republicans and foreign leaders alike criticized his plan to host the 2020 summit of the Group of Seven major economies at the Doral resort. There was fury over the possibility that he could violate the emoluments prohibition of the Constitution by soliciting business from foreign governments, which may have to pay Trump to use space at his resort there.

Calling his Doral venue “one of the most successful properties in the country” on Friday in an Oval Office ceremony, Trump claimed he would “not make any money” holding the summit there next December.

“We’re doing a deal where it’s not going to be money. There’s no money in it,” Trump said. “I just want it to go well.”

With the decision to host it at his property, Trump will now be free to direct business from at least 20 international delegations toward the Doral resort – which has the potential to provide a significant boost to his bottom line. Leaders travel with major contingents, bringing scores of bodyguards, advisers and ministers. Some delegations arrive days in advance and stick around long after.

Trump said G-20 officials “actually requested that it be there” due to the location, and he noted the significant demand for event space in Miami during the winter months. The resort, a few miles from Miami International Airport, features a four-star hotel, golf courses, spa, restaurants and event space. Each country represented, Trump said, will “have its own building” on the property.

It won’t be the first time government officials have descended on the South Florida resort since Trump retook office, however. Days after his inauguration in January, House Republicans held a three-day retreat at the property – marking the first time the conference spent money directly at a venue owned by the president, who made an appearance.

Trump on Friday was flanked by Miami Mayor Francis Suarez (R) as he made the official announcement that Miami would be the host city. Suarez, whose longshot 2024 Republican presidential bid Trump poked fun at in the Oval Office, spoke supportively of the summit being held at Trump’s Doral resort.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who was also present for the announcement, has been organizing much of the programming, Trump said.

Asked by a reporter whether Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping would attend next year, Trump called it an “interesting question.” He claimed incorrectly they could only do so as “observers” and speculated they would not want to attend in that capacity, though both countries are members of the group.

Xi has regularly attended G-20 summits in recent years. Putin, meanwhile, has been skipping them, first because of the covid pandemic and then because his 2022 invasion of Ukraine made him an international pariah facing an arrest warrant.

Trump himself met Putin for the first time at the 2017 G-20 summit in Hamburg.

G-20 summits are the big-tent companion to more exclusive Group of Seven meetings. The smaller format is comprised exclusively of democracies and major economies. And since the logistics allow it, those tend to be hosted at upscale resorts, castles and palaces. G-20 meetings include countries that aren’t democracies, such as China, Russia and Saudi Arabia. And the venues trend more workaday: The last time the United States was the host, in 2009, the summit was held at a riverside convention center in Pittsburgh. A different time, it was held at the National Building Museum in Washington.

Trump on Friday bragged about the logistics of his Doral resort, as he did in 2019, noting its proximity to Miami’s international airport. The front entrance of the golf club is 2½ miles from the back entrance to the airport. Though Trump said “everyone” wanted the summit held at Doral, he didn’t elaborate on which foreign leaders had requested that he host it at the club, which is set amid office parks on the outskirts of Miami.

In 2019, he bragged about how the resort had ample land “in terms of parking,” as though visiting world leaders would be concerned about finding a spot, a claim he did not repeat Friday.

The resort appears to be undergoing construction. A photograph posted Thursday by the property’s managing director, Mickael Damelincourt, showed a torn-up driveway, with a red excavator poised next to a blue dump truck.

“Hard at work on our Doral 2.0 project…We are taking @TrumpDoral to a level you could only dream of…” Damelincourt wrote on X, along with a #neversettle hashtag.

In 2018, Doral was “severely underperforming” compared to other resorts in the area, a tax consultant hired by Trump told a Miami-Dade County official, arguing that the property’s tax bill should be reduced. The consultant blamed Trump’s partisan brand for the reduced business.

Trump’s first effort to host at Doral was blasted by European leaders and some fellow Republicans.

He floated the plan in August 2019 as he visited a tony resort in Biarritz, France, for that year’s Group of Seven summit. But within weeks, the president was facing an impeachment inquiry for his handling of military aid to Ukraine, and he had dissenters in his own party.

“I have no doubt that Doral is a really good place – I’ve been there, I know. But it is politically insensitive,” Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) said that October. “They should have known what the kickback is going to be on this, that politically he’s doing it for his own benefit.”

A spokesman for Simpson said Friday that he now supports hosting it at Doral, and sent a link to a post on X from Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-Florida) that he was “thrilled” the summit would be held in his district.

Asked in 2019 by The Washington Post whether it was appropriate for the European Union to spend public funds on a Trump business at the potential summit the following year, the then-European Council President Donald Tusk said, “Not at all.”

Germany’s then-chancellor Angela Merkel, when asked about it that year, flicked her eyebrows together for a moment before she turned away from a Washington Post reporter and shuffled her notes. She made that expression when asked questions she didn’t want to answer.

“This is a decision taken by the American president,” she responded with a slight smile. “I haven’t had time to deal with this yet. We will take a close look at his invitation, and my intention is to attend the summit.”

Trump does not plan to attend this year’s G-20 gathering of world leaders in South Africa, and will send Vice President JD Vance instead, he said Friday. The president has blasted the South African government for what he has described as discrimination against White Afrikaners, a charge the government denies.

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Aaron Schaffer contributed to this report.